Stateless in West Africa
Lisette, 20, was born and raised in Côte d’Ivoire. To make a living, she sells grains of millet at the local market in Zuenoula. But without ID documents to prove her birthplace, or her ancestral ties to Burkina Faso, she might as well be invisible. Bereft of a...
Shakespeare in Za’atari
Twelve-year-old Wiam Yousef Al-Ammari has not been to school since her family fled Syria in January 2013. But that hasn’t stopped her from studying Shakespeare. She was one of 80 young refugees who recently staged “King Lear” at Za’atari camp in Jordan, exploring...
Fire and Rain
Rain pours down on the scorched ruins of what was, until just a few weeks ago, a refuge for thousands of people displaced inside the volatile North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dozens of former inhabitants, mainly women and children, gather...
A Wedding in Wartime
In Syria, I’m told, wedding celebrations can last up to a week—and sometimes even a month. The night before the wedding, the groom is typically fêted at home or at the hamman. On the day of the ceremony, the bride spends hours getting ready with young relatives and...
Chasing Away the Shadows
Refugee camps can be dark places. For many thousands of people living in tents and caravans far from home, the day effectively stops at sundown. Lack of light puts refugees at greater risk of injury or misfortune, limits their educational prospects and makes it harder...
Three Baby Brothers
“How do you tell them apart?” I ask Jalila, the grandmother of newborn triplets in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. “I just know,” she replies confidently. The baby boy in her hand, she notes, looks different from his two brothers, who are identical. I take a closer look, but...
The Snow Storm
Aisha, a mother of four from Syria, wraps a blanket around her shoulders as the wind beats against the walls of the tent. Outside, snow is piling up and soon the family’s food will run out. “We are really scared of the storm,” she says, shivering as she hands some...
The Sound of Peace
Every morning, Ahmad gently wakes his six-year-old son, Abdu. Then he places hearing aids over the boy’s ears and asks him what he can hear. It is a ritual they cherish, a moment when they remember just how much their lives have changed. Ahmad and Abdu are Syrian...